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Originally Posted by Ididitmyway
I can totally relate to this. I've had very brief encounters with CBT practicing therapists, and every time I met with one of them I felt that it was a joke. I really hope I am not insulting anyone here who is receiving CBT therapy and finds it helpful. It's not my intention to disparage it. If it works for you, by all means, stick with it. I do believe it works for some people. Not for me. I felt that all the CBT ideas were coming from purely logical, intellectual place that was already highly developed in me. If it had been possible to resolve my emotional problems through pure logic and rational thinking, I would've done it with no professional or any other help long ago since my rational, logical brain had been very developed. I needed to understand the logic of emotions, which is literally what psychology is, on its own merit, not through the intellectual logic.
In any case, whenever you feel too smart on any level for the therapist you are seeing, it's a clear sign to move on to seeing someone else who will better match your needs.
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You've echoed my thoughts so exactly, Ididitmyway. Last year I got free CBT with a counsellor through the NHS, but it was more harmful than helpful. My 'rational place' is more developed than virtually anyone I know, and after five frustrating sessions the counsellor suddenly decided I was fine and dropped me. It was pretty discouraging. And the sessions themselves were depressing; I spent a lot of the time feeling like the suggestions were moronic and that I was 10 times smarter than the woman across from me.
What kind of therapy did you end up taking in the end, Ididitmyway? Did you find it useful?
This year I looked around for someone private, and I found an integrative psychotherapist. I was hesitant at first, because while his website was professional and jaw-droppingly human, he had a small section on dream therapy and his love of Carl Jung. My logical mind screamed at me to run away, but my gut (and my emotions) said to go see him.
Now I'm so glad I took a leap of faith and went away from CBT and similar practices. My therapy is hippy as anything -- it involves writing poems, making art, talking about the difficult things in French at first (which he only half understands), roleplaying conversations between my emotional and rational sides, talking about dreams, and sometimes just sitting together in quiet. I could see how this type of therapy could be more useless (or even damaging) than CBT if the therapist was a quack or a bit thick, but my guy is so wonderfully human that the experience has been nothing short of transformative. This is my sixth therapist and his therapy has been by far and away the most healing.
I asked my therapist about CBT, and his answer was that it could help in certain situations or with a minority of people, but it rarely solved the deeper issues. This is now my view. I don't know anyone who has ever thought themselves out of sadness.
I think we need to listen to our guts more. If you feel like the therapy isn't right for you, tell the therapist. If nothing changes, look for something else.